The Vile Village (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 7) (Hardcover)

by Lemony Snicket (Author), Brett Helquist (Illustrator), Michael Kupperman (Illustrator) "No matter who you are, no matter where you live, and no matter how many people are chasing you, what you don't read is often..." (more)
Key Phrases: hot air mobile home, sad beak, fowl devotees, Count Olaf, Council of Elders, Officer Luciana (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The seventh book in Lemony Snicket's splendidly gloomy Series of Unfortunate Events shadows the three Baudelaire orphans as they plummet headlong into their next misadventure. Mr. Poe, their ineffective legal guardian, having exhausted all options for finding them a new home with relatives (including their 19th cousin), sadly entrusts his young charges' fate to a progressive guardian program formed with the premise "It takes a village to raise a child." Before they know it, the Baudelaires are being whisked off on a bus to a village (vile) named "V.F.D." Snicket fans who read The Austere Academy and The Ersatz Elevator will jump to see these three initials, as they provide a clue to the tragic disappearance of the Baudelaires' friends, the beloved, equally orphaned Quagmire triplets.

To the orphans' dismay, V.F.D. is covered in crows--so much so that the whole village is pitch-black and trembling. "The crows weren't squawking or cawing, which is what crows often do, or playing the trumpet, which crows practically never do, but the town was far from silent. The air was filled with the sounds the crows made as they moved around." Another disturbing element of the town is that the Council of Elders (who wear creepy crow hats) has thousands of rules, such as "don't hurt crows" and "don't build mechanical devices." Fortunately, the Baudelaires are taken in by a kindly handyman named Hector who cooks them delicious Mexican food and secretly breaks rules. Still, neither Hector nor an entire village can protect the orphans from the clutches of the money-grubbing Count Olaf, who has relentlessly pursued them (actually, just their fortune) since The Bad Beginning. Fans won't want to miss any of this marvelously morbid series! (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-6-The resourceful, likable, but extremely unlucky orphans Violet, Klaus, and baby Sunny continue to flee from the clutches of the fortune-hunting, disguise-wearing Count Olaf. Also, they need to discover the whereabouts of their kidnapped friends, Duncan and Isadora Quagmire, based on the puzzling clue "V.F.D." In Elevator, the three Baudelaires go to live in the penthouse of the trend-following Jerome and Esm? Squalor, who adopt the children because orphans are "in." Despite the Baudelaires' resourcefulness, both Olaf and the Quagmires elude the grasp of the authorities due to the obtuseness of adults who, until it is too late, deny that terrible things can happen. In Village, the Baudelaires travel to V.F.D., a village that adopts the orphans based on the aphorism, "it takes a village to raise a child." They uncover the whereabouts of the Quagmires, but, as in the earlier books, they find neither respite nor peace from Count Olaf's machinations. Despite Snicket's artful turning of clich?s on their well-worn heads, Elevator sometimes belabors the fallacy of fads at the expense of plot. Nonetheless, the satiric treatment of adults' insistence upon decorum at the expense of truth is simultaneously satisfying and unsettling, as are the deft slams at slant journalism in Village. Arch literary allusions enhance the stories for readers on different levels. Despite Snicket's perpetual caveats to "put this book down and pick up another one," the Baudelaires are dynamic characters who inspire loyalty to the inevitable end of the series.
Farida S. Dowler, formerly at Bellevue Regional Library, WA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (April 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064408655
• ISBN-13: 978-0064408653
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (163 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #38,093 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 7 in The Series of Unfortunate Events Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Misfortune follows the Baudelaires to their newest home., April 20, 2001

By	Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Vile Village (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 7) (Library Binding)

Because none of their distant relatives will take them in out of fear of Count Olaf, the three Baudelaire orphans become part of a new program based on the saying "It takes a village to raise a child." Under this program, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny's newest guardians will be all the residents of an entire village. In the hopes of solving the mystery of "V.F.D.," the children choose a village by that name as their new home. But they are terribly disappointed. They are sent to live with a kind but timid man named Hector who loves to cook Mexican food and has a library of forbidden books. V.F.D. is run by the strict Council of Elders, who have made tens of thousands of ridiculous rules that the citizens of the village must follow or risk being burned at the stake. When the Baudelaires are falsely accused of murder and imprisoned, they must escape from the jail and find their friends the Quagmires, who are hidden somewhere in the village. This was another miserable, hilarious book in A Series of Unfortunate Events that is a must-read for all fans of the series.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My opinion of The Vile Village and other books by L.S., May 6, 2001

By	Hallie Cantor (Mamaroneck, New York USA) - See all my reviews

I am an avid reader of almost 12 years. I stumbled across The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (I hate that pen name though) and I loved it. I read up to the 7th book and cannot wait for the 8th. These books were refreshingly short and entertaining. A Series of Unfortunate Events tells the long and sad epic, throughout many books, of Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire whose parents have perished in a house fire and who are left alone with the evil Count Olaf. Each are well developed and unique characters whose abilities come in useful at every turn only to be squashed by the evil doings of Olaf and his troupe. The books get better and better as you go along and meet characters like:

~Isadora and Duncan Quagmire, two triplets who are also journalists and poets

~Esme Squalor, the fancy pinstriped financial advisor

~Vice Principal Nero, the self-proclaimed genius violinist

~Sir, whose head is invisible due to a constant cloud of smoke

~and many more!

Please, try this series out and you will love it. I thouroughly recommend any book in the series to readers of Harry Potter and other magical stories who want a short and simple laugh-out-loud adventure.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The seventh dreadful book in this hilarious series., October 5, 2001

By	"shayamorph" - See all my reviews

No one wants to be Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. Their chain of unfortunate events keeps continuing, and perhaps has reached its most treacherous event in the lives of the three orphans. Count Olaf and his dastardly new accomplice, Esme Squalor, are on the run. The Quagmire triplets are still missing - and their time just may be running out. Now, the orphans are in the care of the village of V.F.D. - a town with the motto "It takes a village to raise a child." This village
is very, very vile -- there are thousands of ridiculous rules to comply to, and anyone who disobeyes a rule is burned at the stake alive! Then there's the tremendous mob of crows that flock to different places during day and night, blackening the town's sky. The Baudelaires have probably never faced more absurd circumstances. As mysteries and mayhem fill their lives even more, their stay at V.F.D.is becoming worse than they could have ever dreamed. The Vile Village is the seventh book in A Series Of Unfortunate Events, and one of my favorite books in the series so far.